logo-white.svg

Thought & Insight

Meet Amy - Midweight Designer

10.2022 | By Kevin Barter

Amy, Midweight Designer at creative studio Klutch

This week we find out a bit more about Amy, who joined us recently as a Midweight Designer.

Tell us a bit about yourself

Originally I’m from a small country village in East Anglia, I now live on the south coast of the UK, in a borough of Portsmouth called Southsea. I moved there in 2018 and have been enjoying the cool art and music scene there ever since. Part of the ‘Makers Guild’ there I like to experiment in ceramics and photography, capturing light, shadow and colours. I like to get outdoors, so being so close to the sea and the new forest is such a treat. I’m also a keen drummer and attend music concerts on the regular, most recently I saw a danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obel.

How did you get here?

I studied foundation art and design and BA(Hons) Graphic Design at Norwich University of the Arts, graduating in 2016, which is the same art school my dad went to. Six months after graduation I landed a job at a local design agency: Dual Creative in Beccles, Suffolk. Working on branding and various printed media for local businesses, dabbling in email design here and there.

In 2018 I then moved to Portsmouth to work with inhouse design team at the clothing retailer FatFace, who are based in Havant, Hampshire. Here I worked on all sorts which was a steep learning curve but so exciting. I love fashion and nature so working with a brand that works hard to be sustainable and creates good quality, stylish but functional clothes I was so excited. I helped on projects from concepts to roll out of catalogues, point of sale, internal coms, window schemes, web assets, email and social media campaigns. One of the projects I enjoyed the most was the launch of our first campaign using an ‘influencer’. We created a fantastic campaign which saw a lot of lines in the capsule collection sold out.

Alas COVID hit and unfortunately, I was made redundant. This led me to the world of freelance, managing myself, the accounts and clients I found incredibly challenging, however, the work was interesting and varied which made it all worth it. I worked on branding and marketing campaigns for England golf, White Stuff, The Royal Naval Association and Disney.

Feeling the isolation of home working and wanting more collaboration with fellow creatives, I decided working at a design studio would be attractive and so here I am at Klutch. Only a few weeks in I am feeling super, loving the work and the team here, especially Bella!!

Where do you seek creative inspiration?

I can often find inspiration in the most unexpected of places and things. That said, I take joy in visiting museums, galleries and exhibitions to keep my creative knowledge and inspiration refreshed. I often take a few minutes at lunch to look at ‘It’s nice that’, ‘ WePresent‘ and ‘Creative Boom’ to see what other creatives are up to. As mentioned previously I also listen to the Creative Boom Podcast.

I think I’ve always had this desire to learn, I was the ‘why? why? why?’ kid in school… To create design that is conceptually sound, thorough research is incredibly important. I love learning about each client, their product or service and the market they operate in.

What excites you the most about working in the creative industry?

I think I’ve always had this desire to learn, I was the ‘why? why? why?’ kid in school… To create design that is conceptually sound, thorough research is incredibly important. I love learning about each client, their product or service and the market they operate in. I also enjoy the persistent progression in terms of tech, trends, culture and society etc. and that there’s always a new way of doing or thinking about a problem to solve it. There’s never a dull moment.

What do you think is the definition of great design?

Design that communicates a message in a simple and engaging manner to the target market. Developed from conceptually sound ideas and NOT just from what’s trending or looks ‘pretty’.

If you could go back in time what would advice would you give yourself?

Go to the 2010 Rage Against the Machine concert in Hyde park, it’ll be over ten years before the tour again. Also, initial designs do not need to be pixel-perfect, do not waste time perfecting what will undoubtedly be changed/develop further.

Got a project you’d like to discuss?

Let’s talk